Water for Women - Timor-Leste

Progressing climate-resilient inclusive WASH for rural Manufahi and Liquiçá, Timor-Leste

From 2023 to 2024 Water for Women partnered with WaterAid to deliver climate-resilient inclusive WASH services to 9,496* people living in the municipalities of Liquiçá and Manufahi, Timor-Leste. This project was an extension of the 'Beyond Inclusion: Realising gender transformational change and sustainable WASH systems' project (2018 to 2022) which reached 50,365* people. WaterAid’s Water for Women project finished delivery in December 2024.

Partner: WaterAid

Locations: Liquiçá and Manufahi, Timor-Leste

Focus areas: Systems strengthening for climate-resilient inclusive WASH, community-led climate resilience building, water resource management and rural sanitation

During the Extension Phase, the HALIRAS BESI — Strengthening connections for equality, resilience, adaptation and sustainability of WASH project applied three major workstreams to strengthen the WASH system and improve service delivery — community scorecard (CSC), operations and maintenance (O&M), and municipal planning. These workstreams integrated climate resilience and gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) as cross-cutting themes, ensuring that WASH interventions addressed both environmental sustainability and social equity.

In partnership with government and WASH sector actors, WaterAid developed a scalable model for climate-resilient, inclusive WASH in rural communities that enhances understanding of the impacts of climate change on rural WASH services, and facilitates collaboration between WASH and other climate-relevant actors at both the national and subnational levels.

In total, some 59,861 people were reached over the seven years of WaterAid’s project. An additional 108,037 people benefitted indirectly. During the final two-year Extension Phase, this included 9,496* gaining improved access to climate-resilient inclusive WASH. 

A woman collects water from a public tap stand near her house in a rural village of Liquiçá (WaterAid/Marlinda Jeronimo)

Strengthening WASH systems for sustainable outcomes 

Throughout the seven years of Water for Women project implementation, WaterAid’s significant systems strengthening work supported transformative change sustainable WASH outcomes within and beyond Manufahi and Liquiçá municipalities.

During Phase 1 (2018-22), WaterAid supported the development of participatory WASH strategic plans for Manufahi and Liquiçá, integrating WASH into municipal governance and setting clear action points for service improvement. During the Extension Phase, GEDSI and climate resilience considerations were integrated into municipal WASH plans. This included incorporating inclusive wording within the plans; ensuring organisations of people with disabilities (OPDs/DPOs) were involved in the implementation of the plans; indicators for women’s participation in community structures; and accessibility considerations for infrastructure. This led to increased participation of women and people with disabilities in decision-making.

With strong leadership from the government at both the national and municipal levels, significant progress was made in enhancing municipal government WASH planning. The government led the review and updating of municipal WASH plans, with active and meaningful participation from key municipal sector actors. This collaborative approach ensured that the plans were more comprehensive and tailored to the needs of local communities, with strong consideration of climate and GEDSI aspects. An example of this was local government investing in accessible access to local suco council buildings.

The strategic five-year WASH plans, which provide a vision and WASH targets to guide inter-departmental collaboration and annual planning, include an objective related to climate change adaptation which specifically highlights mitigation of risks to WASH services posed by climate change and protection of water source catchments for improved water resource management in each municipality.

At the national level, WaterAid also supported the National Regulatory Directorate for Water and Sanitation (DNRAS) to revise indicators and provided refresher training on the mWater platform to DNRAS staff, including SMASA staff (Municipal Water Sanitation and Environmental Services) from both Manufahi and Liquiça. DNRAS planned to use the platform for data collection across six municipalities and allocated funds in its 2025 budget for the operation of SIBS (water and sanitation information system), marking significant progress.

At the community level, the community scorecard (CSC) approach was used to enhance community participation in assessing rural WASH services and to hold government and those responsible for service delivery accountable for WASH investment. Climate-related indicators, such as water conservation, resource management, quantity, quality, and water source protection were integrated into the CSC framework, including customary Tara Bandu law considerations. Gender equality, leadership within GMF (water user committee) structures, and accessibility indicators were also integrated, including a target of 50% women’s representation in GMF structures, and guidance on the involvement of rights holder organisations (RHOs) in the CSC process.

Read: Strengthening Clean Water Supply Services in Timor-Leste through Community Score Card 

Community action plans were developed at village level and civil society reported findings back to government. Communities utilised the plans developed during the CSC process to advocate effectively with relevant service providers. In Suco Daisua, the Village Chief used the plan to communicate with the government, resulting in an intervention from PNDS (National Program for Village Development) in response to the village’s priority.

“HALIRAS project has been highly helpful for the in producing the Municipal WASH Strategic plan that helps me to advocate the President of Municipal Authority and resulted in increased O&M budget for my department.”

 Domingos Soares, Director of SMASA Manufahi

Civil society supported communities in presenting the outcomes of CSC interface meetings to the Cabinet of Social Audit under the Prime Minister. These presentations highlighted identified gaps and community priorities, ensuring government awareness and action on local needs.

WaterAid also facilitated national workshops on climate-resilient inclusive WASH with the Vice Prime Minister. At one workshop, Liquiçá and Manufahi shared Municipal WASH strategic planning, climate hazard mapping, O&M mechanisms and community engagement processes. Workshop participants discussed the gaps in the WASH system that national level could support to better empower municipal WASH service delivery. Another national workshop included an assessment of the enabling environment for climate-resilient WASH, sharing of hazard profiling and climate resilient WASH and water resource management lessons.

WaterAid’s significant systems strengthening focus supported civil society in advocating for the inclusion of community evidence in Parliament's discussions on the general state budget (OGE), focusing on prioritising WASH issues. While budget allocations for WASH fluctuated over the years, the ongoing debates and advocacy efforts have kept WASH on the agenda and resulted in ongoing budget considerations.

Water quality testing undertaken in Venilale, Baucau (WaterAid/Marlinda Jeronimo)

View more photo updates from our work in Timor-Leste

Further, WaterAid engaged with three new municipalities during the Extension Phase – Baucau, Bobonaro and Ermera, to share experience from Liquiçá and Manufahi with the aim of scaling the WASH systems strengthening work. The project team demonstrated CSC implementation, enabling communities, WASH actors, the municipal administrations and SMASA staff to gain valuable knowledge on CSC best practices, directly observe CSC meetings, and use tracking input to assess rural WASH conditions. Water quality testing was also integrated into community processes. The three municipalities expressed interest in replicating many of the WASH activities that are now routine in Liquiçá and Manufahi, such as water source conservation, infiltration ponds to increase groundwater recharge, check dams to reduce stream erosion, and social auditing processes.

Strengthening GEDSI for equitable and lasting benefits

During Phase 1, WaterAid used the Gender Dialogue Manual (GDM) and CARE’s Social Analysis and Action (SAA) tool to engage communities in discussions about gender roles, responsibilities, and gender-based violence (GBV), leading to improved gender equality. The project raised awareness about shared responsibilities between men and women in households and the community, including water management, and increased understanding and decision-making around GBV and its legal implications. The project grew awareness of gender equality, with some communities adopting more gender-inclusive practices, demonstrating shifts in gender norms. Progress was made in improving access to WASH facilities for people with disabilities and addressing menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in schools.

During the Extension Phase, analysis was conducted of climate resilience and WASH experiences of people experiencing marginalisation. Qualitative data was gathered through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with diverse participant groups in four communities. This evidence was the used by RHOs and WaterAid to influence rural WASH municipal services providers, informing the revision of the CSC indicators, climate hazard mapping profiles, and revision of the municipal WASH plans. 

"Through the O&M to my water system, I have enough water close to my home that allows me to grow more fruits and vegetables to earn income and to finally built a permanent house for my family."

Resident of Loidahar village, Liquiçá

WaterAid exerted considerable influence in incorporating GEDSI mainstreaming into WASH programming at the national level. Through the seven years of Water for Women project implementation, WaterAid raised awareness of the importance of GEDSI among partner organisations in the WASH sector. This included supporting RHOs to develop plans and submissions on the importance of inclusive WASH to parliamentarians.

Read: Breaking Ceilings: Marselina's Journey as a Female Leader in Community Water Management

Progressing safe sanitation and Hygenic Suco status

During Phase 1, WaterAid’s Water for Women project supported significant sanitation gains in Liquiçá and Manufahi. Both municipalities were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF), and Area Mos Limas (ALMO) declared in 24 sucos. ALMO is a government-led model aimed at enhancing the sanitation and hygiene status of communities across both municipalities.

During the Extension Phase, the HALIRAS BESI project made considerable contributions towards the national basic sanitation policy focus of achieving ‘Hygienic Suco’ status. By working closely with local governments, the project supported the achievement of Hygienic Suco status in multiple areas across both municipalities, addressing critical behaviour change and fostering improved coordination among stakeholders at both municipal and post administrative level.

“The Behaviour Change Communication Products are helpful for me to monitor the community’s behaviour on sanitation and hygiene. Particularly to those who did not have toilet to build theirs.”

Hermegildo Casmiro Lopes, the Chief of Village of Fahilebu Sub-village in Tuirscai, Manufahi

Partnerships and capacity building for community-led climate resilience

A core strength of WaterAid’s Water for Women work was the focus on building the technical capacity of local civil society organisations and partners. This was achieved through long-term support, which improved the effectiveness of local NGOs in delivering WASH interventions and advocating for GEDSI.

In Phase 1, the involvement of GEDSI actors in WASH was a key driver in improving GEDSI knowledge and putting GEDSI on the agenda at national and subnational levels. For example, involvement of the Secretary of State for Equality and Inclusion (SEII) in WASH forums, Grupu Feto Foinsae Timor-Leste (GFFTL) leadership in PN-BESITL – the National Platform for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, and using GFFTL’s networks to engage with women parliamentarians about WASH. In the Extension Phase, the project increased the involvement of climate actors in inclusive WASH. Permatil (Permaculture Timor-Leste) is now very active in municipal and national WASH discussions and the municipal departments from agriculture and forestry are focusing more on WASH and water resource management.

To integrate climate risk considerations into WASH planning processes, the HALIRAS BESI project supported municipal and community level climate risk assessments and hazard mapping. At the municipal level, this included the development of climate hazard mapping tools to support the municipal administrations to lead participatory workshops that identified local climate hazards affecting WASH services based on historical occurrences. Climate hazard profiles were developed, identifying municipal-level vulnerabilities to support prioritisation of climate resilience improvements and disaster preparedness.

At the community level, WaterAid partnered with local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Water for Women research partner, the University of Technology Sydney – Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS-ISF) to develop a comprehensive package of activities that supported communities to identify climate risks, human and natural resources available to help adapt to these risks, and action plans to adapt to the risks. This approach built on the previous gender manual work by integrating both GEDSI and climate considerations into the government facilitation manual on community rural water supply.

Strengthening community WASH O&M to safeguard water resources

The HALIRAS BESI project made significant progress in O&M activities. WaterAid collaborated with rights organisation HAK Association, PN-BESITL, and GFFTL to enhance climate-responsive O&M of rural WASH services in Manufahi and Liquiçá. The integration of GEDSI and climate resilience aspects focused on improving the sustainability of water supply systems and ensuring communities were better equipped to manage and maintain these systems in the long term. Small grants were utilised to rehabilitate rural water systems in 29 communities, with 4,805 people being reached.

The project also supported the mainstreaming of water source protection and water resource management into water supply O&M processes. WaterAid supported SMASA to develop and roll out a new mechanism for supporting O&M by GMFs where water systems required costly rehabilitation that was beyond the financial capacity of the GMF. The process included community mapping and discussion of the climate impacts on men, women, and people with a disability in the community, and inclusion of actions to address these climate vulnerabilities in community O&M plans. Communities were supported to take specific actions to improve water source protection, such as planting trees for slope stabilisation around springs and tanks, fencing and walls to preserve spring water quality, and training on building retention ponds upstream of springs to improve groundwater availability and spring flow. In Manufahi, the O&M process was used to support 11 communities (3,522 people) whose water systems were impacted by unseasonal flash flooding in 2023.

Women undertake O&M work on a pipeline in their rural village (WaterAid/Marlinda Jeronimo)

Lessons learnt

Lessons on strengthening the climate resilience of WASH services in the HALIRAS BESI project include:

• Climate resilience cannot be integrated effectively and sustainably into WASH services when WASH governance systems remain weak.
• As a cross-sectoral issue, climate resilience requires strong coordination platforms and inter-departmental collaboration.
• In the absence of detailed climate data and climate change projections, local climate knowledge can enable some steps to be taken to improve climate resilience.
• Community knowledge, capacity and preparation are essential to inclusive climate-resilient WASH services.
• Climate-resilient WASH services must be inclusive WASH services.

The 2023 floods and landslides in Manufahi demonstrated the devastating impacts that climate change can have on WASH. The heavy rainfall and resulting disaster in Manufahi caused significant damage to the community's clean water systems, leaving many without access to clean water. This emergency revealed vulnerabilities in existing infrastructure and the need for resilience-building measures in WASH systems to withstand climate-related disasters.

Despite these challenges, the disaster also served as a catalyst for coordinated action. The municipal government, in collaboration with partners and the community, mobilised resources to address the damage to WASH systems across Manufahi. A total of 29 systems were identified as needing urgent repair. This collective effort demonstrated the importance of collaboration among stakeholders to ensure timely and effective responses to emergencies. The disaster in Manufahi provided valuable insights into the need for adaptive planning, resource mobilisation, and stakeholder collaboration to enhance the resilience of WASH systems against climate-related events. These lessons will inform future strategies for integrating climate change adaptation into WASH programs, ensuring that communities are better prepared to face similar challenges in the future.

Looking ahead

WaterAid’s future hopes and plans in the area of climate-resilient inclusive WASH in Timor-Leste are to leverage community knowledge and government systems to tackle climate change risks to WASH, including:

• Demonstrating approaches to community-led climate-resilient inclusive WASH and integrated water resource management. These approaches will emphasise inclusion of women and people with disabilities in undertaking climate risk assessments of their water resources and water services, then designing, implementing and evaluating appropriate climate adaptation activities including use of nature-based solutions.
• Strengthening sector coordination and capacity around climate resilience and water resource monitoring. Through HALIRAS BESI WaterAid began to foster skills, knowledge, and resources necessary for local authorities and communities to collaboratively and independently manage their water resources in a way that enhances both climate resilience and social inclusion, but further work is needed to institutionalise these approaches and scale them beyond Liquiçá and Manufahi.
• Strengthening the leadership of women, people with disabilities and people with diverse SOGIESC on WASH, GEDSI and climate change to ensure we Leave No One Behind. HALIRAS BESI showed the value of collaborating with rights groups on climate-resilient WASH, as their lived experience can offer valuable insights that contribute to more effective, equitable and sustainable solutions. WaterAid plans to continue to partner with RHOs for their leadership in this space.
• Strengthening adaptive planning and policy implementation at national and subnational levels. Timor-Leste's WASH standards, guidelines and policies do not yet consider climate change; supporting revisions to standards and guidelines is one identified priority. This would be accompanied by continuing to work with municipal and national WASH actors to understand the current and future impacts of climate change on WASH services and how they can support communities to be more resilient against these changes.

Opportunities

There is growing recognition of climate change adaptation as a priority for development agendas globally, with governments, donors, and stakeholders increasingly acknowledging the interlinkages between WASH, climate change, and sustainable development. In Timor- Leste, WASH civil society actors have identified that climate-resilient WASH is not highly prioritised in national plans and budgets because there is limited understanding of the evidence and case for investing in WASH to improve development and climate resilience outcomes.

Entry points to this opportunity can include gathering evidence of the impacts of climate events on WASH, documenting the costs of improving WASH services to make them more resilient, and building the local evidence base for climate-resilient inclusive WASH as foundational to human health, environmental and agricultural outcomes. As programming and funding opportunities shift towards more collaborative initiatives seeking to integrate health, education, gender equality, climate resilience, agriculture and food security, there is also a need for evidence and influencing to ensure climate-resilient WASH is seen as integral to multi-sectoral outcomes.

There is potential to harness technological innovations. Data on water resources, household water use, and meteorology and hydrological data is known to be limited in Timor-Leste. WaterAid previously explored some of these technologies, but as DNRAS progress their plans for the national monitoring platform there are further opportunities for technological innovation and data to inform better planning and policies. Digital tools, mobile applications, and remote sensing can play an important role in improving water management and monitoring climate impacts if they are collecting data that is well understood and used by decision-makers. Examples could include early warning systems for climate-related disasters, enhanced water quality monitoring, and empowering communities with real-time data to make informed decisions about water usage. These technologies can also be instrumental in overcoming challenges related to access in remote or hard-to-reach communities.

“The CSC approach has proven to be an effective tool in helping the government understand rural WASH challenges, fostering community participation, and holding service providers accountable for improving WASH outcomes.”

WaterAid Timor-Leste

The CSC process remains a key tool for strengthening the WASH system and improving community participation and accountability in water system management and quality of implementation. Scaling the CSC and integrating it into national and local government planning remains a key challenge. Future steps should:

• Ensure municipal government have capacity and adopt the CSC and implementation, through system strengthening support.
• Support municipal government to take the lead to enhance the capacity of village leaders on CSC tools and use to assess the priorities of rural WASH and village planning.
• Address the inherent dialogue between the roles of communities as both service providers and users and ensure that government accountability is properly reflected.

Feature photo: Francisca is a leader of the local Water User Group. Since the water system was installed in her village, she has been able to grow and earn an income from her garden (WaterAid/Tariq Hawari)

*Phase 1 beneficiaries were calculated from those who achieved WASH access. Extension Phase beneficiaries were calculated from those who achieved WASH access as well as climate change outcomes. Totals were determined based on outcomes reported by individual projects. See Our Impact.